On Saturday 22nd April it was time for the big Blocko gig in the Isle of Wight. Nick and Steve decided not to come in the end which I thought was a bit of a shame but I wasn't go to let that stop me and so I got the 8.30 train from Waterloo from Portsmouth. I've been to the Island before but last time I went from Southampton to Cowes. It's certainly quite a bit further to get to than Southampton but it's handier for the ferry. The ferry terminal is right at the train station at the end of the platform. In Ryde there's a train at the terminal there to take you along the pier and into the town centre. Very nice! Once I got to Ryde I wandered around the time for a little while. It's just a normal seafront town really with the usual shops and arcades. It's quite hilly as well so I was huffing and puffing quite a bit. After a while I decided on a drink and so found The Royal Squadron where Blocko were playing that night. The pub itself is split into two - the main pub bit and then a back room where the bands play. After a couple in there I went to get some lunch which I ate down on the seafront. After another wander round the town I went back to the Squadron to wait for Lloyd and co and sure enough they showed up before I'd finished one drink! Coolio :) After a little while in there we went up to where we were staying which was this bizarre Addams Family style house with old cars everywhere - the place looks like it's falling apart but the flats inside are actually quite nice. Apparently the place is owned by someone called Dan who was the promoter for that night. He rents all the flats inside to the local punk rockers :)

Later on in the afternoon we went down to the Squadron for the soundcheck. The first band to soundcheck - Pigskin - took absolutely fucking ages to get done. It sounded more like a rehearsal to me and as it transpired, it might well have been because the singer wasn't even there. People got more and more pissed off and eventually Blocko had their soundcheck. I was amused by Mates' little sister putting her fingers in her ears at this point. After the last band, Lying In State, had finished soundchecking Pigskin then decided they needed to soundcheck AGAIN pissing off everyone else in the process...

Oh yeah, beer was good in the afternoon as it was a fantastic £1.25 a pint for 5% lager. You don't get that in central London! After all the soundchecks were done people were starting to show up for the actual show so I basically just carried on drinking, this time at the slightly more inflated price of £2.00 a pint. Still not bad though.

This is where things get a bit hazy - I can remember quite liking Lying In State although I thought their cover of The Mighty Quinn was well dodgy. Blocko were second on (so they could get more drinking in) and were really really great (and I'm not being biased here). Nij sings quite well and is a fucking unbelievable guitar player - we're talking Leatherface standard here :) Lloyd and Mates are also damn solid too... I particularly enjoyed Lloyd's between song banter of "Nij is a slaaaaaaaaag" although I was a bit disappointed that Mates didn't come on and go "punkfuckinrock" into the mic as previously promised. There were a couple of people dancing to Blocko at the start of their set but that kind of tailed off after a while. There was also an amusing drunken bloke who could hardly stand up and eventually ended up just sprawled out on the floor listening. All in all, for a first proper gig I can only see them getting bigger.

Last band on, Pigskin (they of the unbelievably long soundcheck) were dire in my opinion. Rap / metal / punk thing crossover that I just wasn't interested in and as far as I could tell, not many other people were either.

The aftershow was at Patsy's Nightclub which was just down the street and by that time I was just fucked. I spent a reasonably pleasant couple of hours in there almost nodding off to sleep sitting on the stairs next to the dancefloor. I did manage to drink down a couple of pints and a bottle of Smirnoff Ice however! After the club we all trudged up the hill to bed where me and Lloyd managed to snag the backroom. It was a bit cold and Lloyd managed to scare someone shitless by sleepwalking but apart from that, all was well.

I paid for my drinking the next day when I woke up with an absolute stinker of a headache. I was originally thinking of staying on the Island for an extra day but with my headache I decided to leave early with Lloyd who wanted to get home for a roast dinner (and who can blame him!). Overall, it was a bit of a trek just to go to a gig but I'm really glad that I did it. May there be lots more Blocko gigs to look forward to in the future!

--Chris